Infiniti lures Volkswagen’s Melissa Bell to lead global marketing

As director of global brand marketing, Bell will be responsible for building and managing Infiniti’s overall brand strategy and “bringing it to life”, Stefan Weinmann, general manager, Infiniti global communications, told Campaign Asia-Pacific.

Based in Hong Kong, the company’s headquarters, she will also be responsible for managing the company’s agency relationships, optimising media strategy and driving brand innovation.

“The story behind the story is that VW has lost these people because it is so bad at developing and retaining its staff,” a source said about Bell’s appointment.

Bell joined Volkswagen in 2008 as marketing director in Shanghai. She climbed the ranks within the auto company fairly quickly and was named marketing director for the Volkswagen Group in China in 2010, reporting to MD Paul Hu. According to her LinkedIn page, she managed a team of 25 people and 16 product lines, including the Phaeton, Beetle, Touareg, Tiguan, Scirocco and R Models. In March 2013, she moved to Singapore, where she led marketing for the German automaker in the ASEAN region.

Infiniti has also appointed Audi China’s Bruno Gisquet as its director of global experiential marketing, Campaign-Asia Pacific learned. Gisquet, who joined a couple of weeks ago, will run the events and experience team responsible for the firm’s motor shows and car launches.

Gisquet has held senior marketing roles at Audi and Volkswagen.

Infiniti recently appeared in the news for calling a global social media pitch. So far, the Japanese company has only worked with TBWA’s Digital Arts Network Hong Kong, which handles its digital and social-media assignments globally and in the Hong Kong market.